Cleckheaton suffer defeat on dismal day at Dinnington

Cleckheaton's Liam Darville dances round two Dinnington players during last Saturday's North One East contest. Picture Gerald Christian.

Published:18:12Wednesday 25 October 2017

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Cleckheaton suffered a disappointing 29-20 defeat on a dismal day in Dinnington as they slipped to 10th place in North One East.

It was Cleckheaton’s third straight league defeat and came against a side rooted to the foot of the table and who had lost their previous six matches.

It was a fairly dismal display on a dismal day at Dinnington as a cross wind blew with a vengeance throughout the game.

Goal kicking and indeed any kick taken to the air was caught in its grip with unpredictable results.

Despite this Dinnington did manage to kick three conversions and a penalty to take the points from a game on which both sides scored four tries each.

Cleckheaton started brightly and went 10-0 in front with tries from Mikey Hayward and Paul Turner.

The first came following good work from the centre partnership of Matt Piper and Liam Darville to put Hayward in the left corner and the second, a champagne moment as Jack Seddon and Turner combined on the wing to put the latter in at the right corner.

Cleckheaton looked on course for a sizeable victory but Dinnington, fielding their strongest side this season according to the locals, were far from done.

The home team worked hard to get up field and were rewarded with a line out close to Cleckheaton’s line.

A miscommunication within Cleckheaton’s pack meant that Dinnington set up a maul and walked to the line with next to no opposition.

Dinnington levelled the scores five minutes later with another try on the back of a defensive error from Cleckheaton.

The second try was converted despite the ridiculously strong wind and the sides changes ends with Cleckheaton trailing 12-10.

Mike Swetman put Cleckheaton back in front five minutes into the second half with a nicely taken try but he could not convert in the conditions.

Dinnington hit back with their best try of the day and converted to extend their lead to four points.

Cleckheaton looked the better side in terms of territory and possession but were noticeably quieter than Dinnington in everything they did.

Dinnington’s enthusiasm was high but despite this Cleckheaton again took the lead when good work from the forwards, directed by Jack Bickerdike at scrum-half, took the visitors close before Ryan Piercy barged his way over.

Cleck had a narrow one point lead at 20-19 but looked back in control, despite again missing the conversion.

Cleckheaton’s line out had worked well all day but as Dinnington kicked deep it failed them.

A throw five metres from Cleck’s line was spilled and Dinnington went in for another converted try.

With the minutes ticking down Cleckheaton’s hopes of winning the match and even their hopes of getting two bonus points were thwarted by an 80th minute penalty goal for Dinnington, who secured a first win of the season.